I'm Not Your Little Girl Anymore
by CanadianChick07
Summary: Callen is quickly realizing that his daughter isn't his little girl anymore and is now a teenager with plans and ambitions of her own, especially opinions of her own. And he's not sure how he feels about the fact that his daughter has a friend in a member of his team.


**Kind of a companion piece to First Impressions. Set in season mid season 2.**

* * *

"What is this?" Callen asked as he picked up the letter on his ex sister-in-law, Skylar Vandenhoven's counter.

Taylor Vandenhoven came down the stairs, running her hand through her blonde wet hair and then putting it in a messy bun at the top of her head. "It's a letter, addressed to me," she replied.

Callen held up the letter. "It has the University of Arkansas name on it. What is in the letter?"

"None of your business," Taylor muttered.

"I'm your father, so yes it is my business," Callen replied. He opened the letter and his jaw dropped. "A NCAA Letter of Intent? What the hell is going on?"

Taylor looked at him and took the letter away. "I believe opening mail that isn't addressed to you is a federal offense. Oh wait, you're a federal agent and you don't give a damn about my privacy!"

"Taylor," he said as his voice dropped. "I didn't know you had soccer skills to get you a full ride scholarship."

She clenched her hair in frustration for a second. "This is what I don't get about you! You walk into my life two years ago and since then it has been a revolving door of appearances. For God's sakes, Dad, I played for the US Under 17 National soccer team! Of course I have the skills!"

"Who else has mailed letters of intent?"

Taylor looked at her dad and the apple she grabbed from the counter. "Arkansas is the highest ranked team to mail a letter of intent. But I've talked to a couple of coaches. "

"Any in California?"

"I'm not staying in California. I'm going where I can get the best scholarship and who has the best team."

Callen raised his eyebrows. "Oh really? Where do you want to go?"

"I don't know. The coaches from Florida and Nebraska have been in contact with me. Apparently I would have a lot more Div I teams calling me except for than blown ACL a year ago, my little hiatus this summer and my suspension from my school soccer team. Although….my club coach has been getting a lot of calls about me since we qualified for Denver. I'm not bragging on my soccer skills, but by the time February rolls around which is when I can actually sign this thing, I can probably pick anywhere I want to go to."

Her father sighed. "Signing a Letter of Intent isn't a small detail."

"I think I fucking know that," Taylor said. "I'm not picking the first school that offers me a scholarship. I don't think I really want to go to Arkansas, either."

"Does Skylar know about all of this?"

She laughed. "Considering I need her signature as my legal guardian, yes. She played softball at OSU for two years, she knows about all this NCAA mess."

"How come you have never once came to me about this?"

"Geez, I don't know, Dad. You come to some soccer games but I don't think you actually realize what's going on. You don't ask questions, you really aren't involved in my life.

"You never have let me," Callen argued.

She chuckled and shook her head. "I wonder why. Before this summer, one week I'd see you everyday and then I wouldn't hear from you for ten days. You are my father! You don't get to choose when you can walk in and out of your child's life. Before two years ago, I could count the number of times I saw you on two hands. I get you have a dangerous job and you're a fucking federal agent, but somewhere in there I have to be a priority and right now I'm not and suddenly you walk into my kitchen and demand to be a part of it. I don't think so. You also don't get that I'm not your little girl anymore. You can't then waltz into my life and try and control it. And to top the fucking cake off, you fucking shipped me off with my mother for seven weeks in the middle of summer. You got burned, I get that, by some guy who knew a lot about you but the easiest thing was to put me in a safe house. Send me across the country. She held me hostage down there. I know you threatened her but it wasn't NCIS who got me out. You're lucky I got myself out of Venezuela, without your help I might add and I am still talking to you," she was on a full on rant right now. "I have to get to school, let yourself out and feel free to go through any of my stuff," Taylor added sarcastically. She had been wanting to say that to her father for a long time. She loved him, but she wasn't a yo-yo and being a teenager and dealing with a father who worked long hours wasn't the best set up.

She grabbed her backpack that was sitting by the front door and got in her Charger. She didn't go far, she drove around the block and when she saw her father's Mercedes gone, she pulled back into the driveway. It took two minutes to change into her bathing suit and grab the surfboard and throw it in the car. She had checked the surf reports, they looked quite nice and class could wait. She wasn't paying attention with that anger she had bottled up inside.

* * *

She didn't get very far once she got to the beach. She took her surfboard, and beach bag and sat in the sand for a minute. She took out her phone and texted her aunt that if she got a call from Santa Monica High that Taylor was skipping classes, she was out surfing and would go to school later in the day. Her aunt was a pushover when it came to things like skipping classes.

"What are you doing out here?" Detective Marty Deeks sat down beside her, with his own surfboard.

"I could ask you the same question," Taylor replied, eyes on the ocean in front of her. She liked the guy, after all he did get her out of a MIP ticket when she was so drunk she could barely remember her own name (she's still not sure how she told the LAPD officer who came to bust up the party that she had a LAPD Detective on speed dial and he'd vouch for her) and didn't tell her father about it. And she had spent some time with him and Kensi a little bit and she liked Deeks' easy going personality. She liked Kensi, but she just got along with Deeks better.

Deeks laughed. "Touché. Although, I am pretty sure you are not graduated yet so you are legally required to attend high school."

"I'm pretty sure you're employed by the federal government and they probably refrain like you being late for work to go surfing."

He looked at the teenager. "Mental health day?"

She shrugged. "Something like that. I'll go back once I get my anger and frustration out. You?"

"I have a meeting with LAPD at 11 30 so Hetty just told me to take the morning off. Woman must have read the surf reports or something," he joked.

Taylor shook her head. "She's too ninja." She's pretty sure Hetty knew about her time in South America, all the classified details that her father didn't even know, because Hetty was like that.

"What set you off this morning? Boy troubles?"

She smirked. "I don't have boy issues. They have issues with me. No, not that. More… If you get to work later this afternoon and my father is in a really bad mood, I'm to blame for that."

"Oh?"

"I might have lost it on him this morning," Taylor said, in the understatement of the century. The LAPD Detective looked at her and she knew she had to expand. "He stopped by the house this morning and ended up going through my mail and finding a Letter of Intent. He wasn't too happy with that and I not so subtly hinted I was putting him up for Worst Father of the Year Candidate."

Deeks laughed. "Oh, Callen may be a lot of things but I don't think he's up for that award. Believe me, I know personally about horrible fathers."

"He sent me to South America with my mother who then held me hostage for seven weeks. That right there makes him a good candidate. He doesn't get that every time he walks into my life after a disappearance I get older. I'm not his daddy's little angel anymore."

Deeks was undercover when Callen had sent her away when Eugene Keelson burned him. "Who is your mother?"

"My mother… is a rogue CIA operative who currently works for the highest bidder." Taylor really didn't know the whole story, just the bitter custody battles, that obviously never panned out for either of them as Skylar had custody.

He whistled. "I'm guessing my clearance status wouldn't be able to touch what the CIA has on her."

"I don't even know if Hetty's would. Scratch that, Hetty knows everything. Hetty called my mom and my mother arranged for a private plane to be flown into Burbank to come get me and then flew down to Mexico where my little hiatus began."

"And where did it end? You were back when your Dad and the team rescued me from out of undercover," Deeks said. All Taylor knew was that an undercover mission didn't end so hot for Deeks.

Taylor pushed around the sand with her toes. "Caracas. Thanks to an individual my father has absolutely no knowledge about and two SEALs from Team Seven."

"SEALs got you out?"

"In the very shortened version of the story yes."

Deeks looked at her. "Which one of them are you dating?"

"What the fuck are you talking about, Deeks?"

"Either the individual, which I highly doubt because my cop senses tells me you want to keep his identity a complete secret or one of the SEAL team members. You had it written on your face."

"I did not. You took a lucky guess."

Deeks looked at her. "I am a LAPD Detective, I am trained for this shit. What's his name?"

Taylor's voice dropped. "I swear to God, if you tell any of this to anyone, I will call my mother and have her kill you herself."

"Got it," Deeks said. Her face said she wasn't lying when she told him to shut up.

"Petty Officer 1nd Class Cole Sorensen. Seriously, we could get in so much shit for this. I'm underage, Deeks! He's a US Navy SEAL, who rescued me. I am the definition of jailbait. Not to mention my father is a federal agent."

Deeks nodded his head. "You two are playing a very slippery rope," he said. He laughed. "I honestly don't get you, Taylor. You have two, fucked up parents and then instead of having a normal teenage life, you go for the one guy who is basically as off limits as they come."

"They don't call me complicated for nothing," Taylor muttered.

"My Navy knowledge isn't much but if he's a PO1, that would put him at what 23 if he enlisted pretty early?" Deeks asked.

Taylor realized how ridiculous all this was sounding. "22. I'll be 18 next month if that helps any."

Deeks scratched his head. "A month of keeping it from your father and hoping he doesn't try and put a statutory rape charge on the guy if he finds out. The legal age for consenting to sex is 18 in California, but you already know that. When was the last time you saw your boyfriend?"

"Two weeks ago. He's on some mission."

"When, not if, Callen finds out about the boyfriend, he will probably have a conniption fit. But you already know that," Deeks added.

Taylor shrugged. "It's not like I'm dating a drug dealer. I could do a lot worse. Sam was a SEAL. What's the big deal?"

"Age? Perception? Distance? He could be killed? Automatic hatred for his only daughter's boyfriend?"

"For a shaggy haired surfer you are pretty smart," Taylor commented.

Deeks smiled. He liked Callen's daughter. She had some attitude issues and some issues due to what he gathered the abandonment of her mother and the in and out relationship with her father and being raised by her aunt. She was a good kid though, just needed some guidance so she didn't go down the wrong path. "I'm happy you didn't use the word hippie. Let's go surfing," he said as they picked up their surf boards.

* * *

At the office later, Deeks went to see Nell Jones. Thankfully, Eric wasn't there. He leaned over her shoulder and whispered in her ear. "I need a file."

Nell turned around. "What type of file? You have access you know."

"Not to this, I don't. I don't know the codename but it's a US Navy file. It will be from about four months ago and one of the members on the operation was Petty Officer 1st Class Cole Sorensen," Deeks said.

She narrowed her eyes. "Are you trying to get me to slip you a classified Navy file on the rescue of Taylor Vandenhoven?"

"Callen's already asked, hasn't he?" That was the only reason Nell would know why he was asking about a file and PO1 Sorensen.

Nell shook her head. "He hasn't asked me, but I can get you the file."

"Thanks." Something told him that Nell already had that file and knew what was in it.

Deeks walked out of Ops to be met by Hetty. He considered walking away but she knew what he was up to. "Doing anything Mr. Deeks?"

"No, Hetty. Nothing at all."

"So, you didn't just ask Miss Jones for the file regarding the rescue of Miss Vandenhoven out of Caracas."

Deeks stayed silent. There was no way out of this one.

"Was there anything in particular you were looking for, Mr. Deeks?" Hetty asked.

"She told me there was somebody else involved and wasn't going to divulge his or her identity. I want to know who that person was, for her safety."

Hetty looked at him. "I'll look into it, Mr. Deeks," she said, as she walked away. "Oh and Mr. Deeks, good work with Taylor. Keep it up. She needs someone like you in her life."


End file.
